By Magnus Effiong
A group of legal practitioners in Cross River has petitioned the Commissioner of Police in the State, Augustine Grimah, to urgently investigate the reported brutality meted out on a citizen, Ogo Ogar Ichire, by the police in Ikom, central Cross River.
The lawyers, led by Barrister Sony Mgbe, said Ogo Ichire was “bound like a robber, gagged and then thrown into the boot of a car like luggage and taken to the police station and subjected to further torturous ordeal and detained in a cell with handcuff.”
Barr Mgbe said the torture was linked to cocoa farm transaction which Mr Ichire leased out to one Mr Moses Uwaeme, and which the police did not properly investigate the propriety or otherwise of the claims presented to it before unleashing mayhem on Ichire, the owner of the cocoa farm.
In a petition to the Police Commissioner, made available to our reporter in Calabar, Barr Mgbe, leading Barristers Felicia Nzuanke, Michael Omom, amongst others in the matter, faulted the lease agreement papers which the police relied on to arrest and torture their client. He described the lease agreement presented by the lessee as ‘fake.’
He said, “Our client is the owner by customary inheritance of a large cocoa farm plot at Rotuk Farm Road, Okuni in Ikom local government area of Cross River state.
“The clear understanding, custom and usage in the lease agreement was that the Lessee Mr. Moses Uwaeme was to clear the farm of weeds and shrubs at least thrice yearly to make the farm roomy and airy in order to boost productivity.
“The Lessee was also to regularly spray the farm with such agro chemicals like gamalin 20, cocoa bre-sandoz, blue stone and allied chemicals but certainly not with carbite which is a burning and corrosive substance used by welders for iron works.
“However, to our client’s dismay and chagrin, the Lessee did not do any of the above but was merely contented with wading through bushes and shrubs to pick cocoa pods and left the farm overgrown with weeds, algae and other parasitic climbers.
“Our client did terminate the lease at its expiration in 2019 and retook possession and control of the farm.
“Our client had been in active possession of his farm until the 2nd of March, 2024, when the said Moses Uwaeme using the Ikom Division Police invaded our client’s house in the dead of the night and picked up our client half naked to the station.”
Similarly, a group, which addresses itself as Olulumo Heritage and Annals (OHA) of Olulomo kingdom in Cross River, has vowed to ensure justice is done over the mater.
“The fact that they had preferred police intimidation and brutality in preference to the legal process of civil litigation seems to indicate that they have something to hide; that is to say that, they know that, the contractual document they are holding is actually a fake document.
“What is amazing and disturbing is the fact that, further investigations by the Olulumo Heritage and Annals platform has revealed that one of our sons of Olulumo extraction, who is a practising State Counsel (a salaried employment) is getting himself deeply involved in this matter that falls strictly within the purview of private legal practitioners.
“The heritage platform is, therefore, by this notice advising the State Counsel under reference or any other State Counsel who is meddling in this sordid matter to terminate their unlawful activities forthwith.
“Our legitimate action against such meddlesome interference will be to place all matters of unethical conduct before the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee at the Body of Benchers in Abuja.
“Let it be known that after this notice, we shall not hesitate to take this course of action as our next line of action in support of one of our compatriots who is currently facing persecution over his legitimate heritage that trancended to him from his father’s and forebears,” the group’s Administrator General submitted.
Efforts to speak with the State Public Relations Officer of the Cross River State Police Command, Irene Ugbo, did not yield any fruit as her telephone line could not connect as at press time
